The Beast with Nine Billion Feet tells a story in which the characters’ personal lives and relationships become inextricably braided into an ideological conflict pitting two takes on the material consequences of biotechnology in bitter opposition… In the course of the novel’s denouement, Menon reveals a terrible irony that casts a new light over the entire story. The revelation not only explains the mysteries encountered throughout, but more importantly, compels a re-evaluation of what we have previously understood.